


Some Nights

by Lampshadez



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, One Shot Collection, Surgery Mention, violence mention
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-03
Updated: 2016-12-11
Packaged: 2018-09-06 04:32:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8735029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lampshadez/pseuds/Lampshadez
Summary: I've been listening to the song "Some Nights" by fun. almost nonstop recently and I was inspired to write some one shots inspired by it.  If you haven't heard the song, check it out!  Also, I'm open to suggestions for one shots in this series!





	1. Cashing In My Bad Luck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content Warning on this one for mentions of violence and surgery/surgery-type stuff  
> Also, this is set sometime soon after season 1 but ignores Dolls getting taken and Waverly getting possessed. Future one shots will not always follow those rules, and the setting will be addressed in chapter notes  
> This chapter is Wynonna-centric, with hints of Wynonna/Dolls and Waverly/Nicole

Wynonna winced in pain as Doc put stitches in a gash in her head.

"Shit, I think we're going to have to start calling you Henry again.  The name 'Doc' seems too ironic now."

Dolls was sat across the table from Wynonna and he looked up when she spoke, a look of concern on his face.

"Hush now," Doc said.  "I'm almost done, I promise."  He tied off the line of stitches he was working on on Wynonna's forehead and started on the next gash.

"Wynonna, we can still take you to a doctor..." Dolls led.

"Oh, relax," Wynonna said.  "Doc is a doctor, even if he's a bit out of practice.  You've given someone stitches before, right?"

"Indeed I have."

"When?" Dolls asked.

Doc's mustache twitched.  "I think I would rather not answer that."

"Great," Dolls said.  "He hasn't done this in a hundred years."

"At least he's a doctor," Wynonna said.  "Usually you do them and I don't see your medical degree anywhere."

"We've been over this-."

"Yes, I know," Wynonna said.  "This is a small town, if we go to the hospital every time we get a bump people will notice and freak out.  You get to stitch everyone up usually because you're a very hands on boss, and today you can't because you got stabbed."

"I got slashed," Dolls said.  "Scraped, more like.  And I could-."

"If you think I'm letting you stitch up my face with a hand you can barely move, you are high."

"Stop moving," Doc ordered,

Wynonna gave him a look but did turn back toward him.  Doc finished his work quickly as they sat there in silence.  Dolls went back to the report he was working on.

"There," Doc said, cutting the thread and sitting back.  "All done."

"Thanks," Wynonna said, genuinely appreciative.  She stood up and stumbled a bit.

"Hey..."

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Wynonna said.  "I was just sitting for a while.  And, I'm covered in blood so I'm going to get changed."

"Into what?" Dolls asked, a bit of laughter in his voice.

"Clothes," Wynonna said.  Dolls and Doc didn't look like they believed her.  "I have clothes, you guys.  I have a locker downstairs, I keep a change of clothes in there for when I end up covered in blood or revenant goo or god knows what else."

"Okay," Dolls said, hands up in surrender.  "Do you need any help?"

"Do I need your help taking my clothes off?" Wynonna asked.  "Geez, that was smooth.  No, I think I've got it."

"No, I know-." Dolls stammered.

"Wynonna, you took a hell of a hit today," Doc said.  "You should rest."

"I will," Wynonna said.  "In clean clothes."

"At least let me take you home," Dolls said.

"What?  It's barely noon, we've got half a workday left."

"Wynonna."

"I'll be back," Wynonna said, heading out of the room already.

**-WE-**

Wynonna slowly but surely made her way downstairs to the locker room.  She opened her locker - the room was bigger than it really needed to be so there were a lot of unclaimed lockers, and Wynonna managed to get the one in the back corner, as far from everyone else as possible.

So, she went to her corner and reached into her locker and took out her clothes.  If she was honest, she wasn't actually entirely sure that the clothes were in there - she remembered dipping into the supply before but only sort of remembered putting anything back there.  She was relieved to see it and she exhaled in relief, only to be reminded of the pain in her ribs.

The events in the morning came back in flashes, partially because of the blows to her head and partially because she just wanted to block it out.  She remembered it like a usual revenant call, one that she and Dolls replied to.  They brought Waverly, who was still sort of training for working for Black Badge.

There were more revenants than they expected, and they were ambushed.  Wynonna still had the upper hand - after Bobo went away, the revenants quickly became disorganized.  They split into gangs of sorts and they lost a lot of their firepower in the shuffle.  They all still had the goal of taking out Wynonna Earp, though.

So, they went to a site that they knew had revenants, and were ambushed.  They had knives and they took the group by surprise, so they took some damage before the revenants were all put down.  Dolls got his arm slashed, and a big revenant got a few good punches on him.  Wynonna got a couple to her head, a couple to her ribs, and she could see one of her knees swelling through her jeans.

She reached into her locker, wanting to get on with it before the rest of the memories flashed by, but she couldn't stop them.  She remembered seeing, like in slow motion, Waverly get hit.  She remembered seeing Waverly fight back.  She could see it all, see all the damage that was done today and all the lengths the people around her willing to go to to protect her, the unlucky, unwitting heir.

She took her shirt off in a swift motion that amplified the pain in her ribs but she ignored it.  She threw her shirt down in her locker and as she turned a bit to put her clean shirt on, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror on the wall.

Her scars from growing up in and out of juvie had long faded; they were part of her.  She wasn't a stranger to scars, from her childhood to her time spent abroad doing whatever she could to survive.  But these, these were new.  She wasn't sure exactly how but that sat on her differently.  They weighed on her differently.

She looked at her reflection and saw the scars on her back and realized that some of them she didn't even remember getting.  She had scars on her arms, her shoulders, her chest, everywhere exposed was marked in some way.

She let herself look at it all for a second longer and she felt her chest tighten.  She quickly pulled her clean shirt on.

**-WE-**

Wynonna headed back into Black Badge with her usual expression.

"You know what, boss," she said, addressing Dolls but not really looking at either of the men in the room.  "I think I am going to head home."

"Can I give you a ride?" Dolls said.

"I'm fine," Wynonna said.  "My truck's here.  I'll see you all tomorrow."

**-WE-**

Wynonna pulled into the yard of the homestead and saw a familiar Jeep there.  She got out of her truck.

"Hey," she called to Waverly.  "You alright, baby girl?"

Waverly looked up from the stoop.  She looked a bit shell shocked.  She'd been in action with Black Badge before - hell, she'd been shot before - something about this day was different.  They were ambushed and they fought hand-to-hand and they all got hurt.

Waverly nodded.  "Yeah.  You?"

Wynonna shrugged a bit, as best she could.  She sat on the stoop beside Waverly.  "Why are you sitting out here?"

"It's quiet in there," Waverly said.  Waverly had some bumps and bruises but didn't need any stitches or significant attention.  She was pretty sure she aggravated her old wrist injury and definitely had earned herself a black eye, but all in all she was okay enough.

"Yeah," Wynonna agreed.  She sat there with her sister quietly, both of them not too sure of what to do other than just sit there.  "Is Nicole on her way...?"

Waverly inhaled deeply.  "No."

"Why the hell not?"

"I didn't tell her about this..."

"And you don't think she'll hear?"

Again, Waverly sighed.  "No, she will.  I just...I don't know.  Today was heavy."

"Yeah," Wynonna agreed.  "It was.  It's not always this bad."

"Today was bad, though."

Wynonna nodded.  "Yeah."

Again, they sat in silence for a little while.

"I don't want to talk about it," Waverly said.  "Do you?"

"No," Wynonna said after a beat, and neither of them knew if she was being completely honest, but also neither of them was going to press the issue.  She shrugged.  "I don't know how to talk about this.  I'm not sure I ever did."

Waverly laughed a bit.  "Right."  Wynonna looked over at her.  "I mean, this has been our whole lives.  It's kind of unbelievable that we don't have a handle on this by now."

Wynonna laughed too.  "Yeah.  You know, I had this one therapist who tried to make me express my feelings through building blocks."

"The ones with the letters on them?"  Wynonna never spoke about her therapy, so it caught Waverly off guard, but not so much that she'd stop the conversation.

"No," Wynonna laughed.  "Not even those, just blank ones.  She'd have me build things and then we'd just break them down.  I think she was just a bit heavy handed on the whole 'breaking down walls' thing."

"Yeah, sounds like," Waverly agreed.

Again, there was a bit of a silence.  Laughter could only last so long in an intensely stressful situation.

"We don't need to talk about it," Waverly said.  "Not to each other, not to Nicole or Dolls-."

"Nicole and Dolls are not the same-."

"We don't need to talk about it," Waverly repeated.  "Agreed?"

Wynonna wasn't so sure she did agree, but Waverly was asking.  Her injured, broken baby sister was asking her.  She nodded.  "Yeah.  Agreed."

"I mean, we can just use the Earp card, right?" Waverly said, trying to lighten the mood.  She was great at reading people, she knew that if she asked Wynonna not to talk about it Wynonna would agree, even if she didn't want to.  She pushed that realization down, told herself that it was okay anyway.  "We've been through enough, we don't need to go through the whole ordeal of talking about it."

"Yeah," Wynonna agreed.  "I mean, there's got to be a line somewhere with the shit we go through, right?"

"Yeah," Waverly agreed.  "We go through this shit, we don't owe anyone anything.  We get to deal with it how we want, no questions asked."

Wynonna looked at her again.  "Are you alright?"

Waverly opened her mouth to answer, but shut it.  She tried again.  "That was a question."

"We might not need to talk about it to each other, or Nicole or Dolls or whoever," Wynonna said.  "Maybe we deserve to deal with this how we want, people who love us be damned.  But bottling this up doesn't work.  We both tried, for years."

Waverly looked out at the homestead.  That place meant a lot to her, both good and bad.  Both simple and complicated.

She looked back at Wynonna.

"Did you just say Dolls loves you?"

"What?  No.  What?"

Waverly grinned and Wynonna couldn't help but grin too.

"Oh my god, you totally did."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think! I really like playing with the relationship between Wynonna and Waverly. This is set soon after season 1 so I think Wynonna still would go to the ends of the earth for Waverly, no questions asked, and Waverly knows that, maybe a bit too well. Wynonna wouldn't want to burden Waverly by talking about all of it and Waverly doesn't talk to Wynonna about anything, least of all this. So, I like exploring those aspects of how they deal with each other. They love each other a lot but they aren't exactly open books with each other. Waverly isn't very open with Nicole, either, and I think Wynonna wants to be open with people but doesn't know how. So that's some of the stuff I'll explore in other chapters, as well as other themes/topics/characters.


	2. Call It a Draw

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is set sometime after Wynonna and Dolls meet, but I'll let y'all decide for yourselves how far.
> 
> This one is Wynonna-centric, with hints of Wynonna/Dolls and Waverly/Nicole

Wynonna stood with Dolls in the police department parking lot, having just gotten out of his car.  They had just gotten back from a call, and Wynonna looked at her watch.

"Hey, let me buy you a cup of coffee or something."

"We've got coffee inside," Dolls said.

"How about tea?  We never have tea."

"I'm good."  Dolls was walking from his parked car to the door but he finally noticed that Wynonna wasn't waking with him.  He turned and looked at her.

"I think I dropped my keys in your car," Wynonna said.  "Could you help me look for them?"

Dolls nodded and walked with her back to the car.

"Are you sure they aren't hiding in your pocket?"

"No, I checked."

"Wynonna, I can hear them moving in your pocket."

Wynonna slowed and reached into her pocket.  "Huh.  Look at that."  She pulled the keys out.

"Great," Dolls said.  "Can we go inside now?  It's freezing."

"No," Wynonna said.  Dolls gave her a look.  "I mean, uh...did you remember to lock the car?"

Dolls clicked the lock button on his keys without even taking the keys out of his pocket.

"Good looks," Wynonna said, flashing him an awkward thumbs up.  She walked with him to the door, albeit very slowly.

"What's going on?" Dolls said.

"What do you mean?"  She was still walking slowly, so slowly that Dolls had to make himself slow down to keep up with her.

"Why don't you want to go inside?  Are you alright?"

"Dolls, I'm fine."

"Okay, then let's maybe walk like we plan on getting inside today."

"I mean..." Wynonna stammered.  She stopped.  "Let's just go."

"What?  Go where?"

"Away," Wynonna said.  "Let's leave.  Let's go somewhere."

"Where?" Dolls asked.  "We can't leave all this behind.  We have obligations here."

"Do we?" Wynonna asked after a moment.  "You're in the Black Badge Division, if you leave they'll have someone fill in for you."

"What about Waverly?"

Wynonna's jaw clenched.  She shrugged, trying to keep it cool.  "She's wanted to be the one to break the curse for her whole life.  What better opportunity will there be than with me out of the way?"

"You want to leave all this behind?"  Dolls had stopped a little ways ahead of her and walked back toward her with a concerned expression.

Wynonna shrugged.  "Our jobs are damn near impossible and they're stressful as hell.  We can go."

"Go where?" Dolls asked.  "Where would we even go?"

"I've still got friends in Greece," Wynonna offered, not sure where to take this conversation now that it started.  "Well, maybe not friends, but...I've got some places we can go."

"You want us to run away?"

Wynonna looked at her watch.

"Uh....."

"Wynonna."

"Well..."  She ran a hand through her hand, she looked away toward the town.  She killed some time and then looked at her watch.  "You know what, never mind."

"What?"

Wynonna walked back toward the door at normal pace.

"It's a dumb idea," Wynonna said.  "Come on, it's freezing, let's go in."

Dolls watched her for a bit then followed her in.

**-WE-**

"Wynonna, we should talk about that..." Dolls said.  He was quiet for the whole walk up to their floor but he finally found the words as they neared the Black Badge door.

"No, I think we're good."

"Wynonna-."

Wynonna opened the Black Badge door and entered, followed by Dolls.

"Surprise!"

Dolls stepped in and saw Waverly and Nicole inside.  Waverly threw a handful of confetti at him.

Dolls looked surprised but then looked disgruntled at the confetti on the floor.

"Don't worry, we'll clean up," Wynonna said.  "Anyway, happy birthday!"

"You told them that it's my birthday?"

"What, was it classified?" Wynonna retorted.

"Come on, Dolls," Waverly said.  "We've got cake, we've got confetti, we've got beer."

"This is a government office," Dolls said.  "Not an event hall."

"Well, today it's the site of your birthday party," Wynonna said, walking behind him and snapping a birthday hat on his head.

Dolls took it off and looked at it, and Wynonna took it from his hand and put it back on.

"Come on, birthday boy, get in the spirit.  Be glad we didn't make the whole department come down and sing for you."

"Wynonna..."

"Relax, we're not doing that," Wynonna said.  She took him by the shoulders and steered him toward the table.  "Come on, sit down, eat some cake, drink some beer.  Live a little.  It's your birthday."

Dolls softened a bit.  "You didn't have to do all this."

"I know."

Waverly cut a piece of the cake and put it on a plate that she handed to Dolls.

Wynonna grabbed a fork from the table and put it on the plate, too.

"Happy birthday, Dolls."

**-WE-**

"Oh, shit," Nicole said, standing to avoid the puddle of beer on the table she'd created when she accidentally knocked her bottle over.  "Do we have paper towels?"

Waverly grabbed the few napkins on the table and handed some to Nicole, who dried herself off.  Waverly went after the puddle on the table.

"I'll get some more," Wynonna said, standing.  She went out and Dolls went with her.

"I've got it," Wynonna said, seeing Dolls follow her.

"I know," Dolls said.  "Still." 

He followed her outside and shut the door to Black Badge behind them.  He waited until they were in the break room to speak.

"You didn't mean that, right?" he asked.  "What you said before, about leaving."

"No, of course not."  Wynonna shook her head but she had that half-frown expression she used so often when she was saying what someone wanted to hear.  Dolls could see it, even though she was halfway into the supply closet.  "I was just trying to stall, to give Waves and Nicole enough time to set up."

Dolls saw the look, and Wynonna could see his expression wasn't entirely neutral as usual.  "Okay.  Good."

"Yeah?"

"We've got work to do here," Dolls said.  "A lot of work.  I told you, I need you."

Wynonna stilled in her search for a roll of paper towels.  After a moment, she reached onto a high shelf and grabbed one.  "Here we go."

She came out of the closet and presented the roll to Dolls, grinning with triumph.

"You didn't have to do all this," Dolls said.

"I know."

"In fact, I could've sworn I told you not to do this."

"No, you told me not to try to take you out," Wynonna said.  "This is a compromise."

"It feels more like a draw."

Wynonna was suddenly aware of how close Dolls was standing to her.  She looked down, getting a view of him that wasn't just his face.

"So what if it is?"

They heard someone clear their throat in the doorway and they both stepped back from each other.

"Just getting some coffee," Nedley said, holding up his mug.

Wynonna nodded and walked past him out the door.

"Sheriff," Dolls greeted.

"Agent," Nedley nodded back.  "Nice hat."

Dolls reached up and felt that he was still wearing a party hat.  He walked out the door and went back to Black Badge.


	3. Build a Castle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks to firefighterHaught26 for their suggestion/comment on the first chapter! Hopefully you like this one :D

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set some time after season 1
> 
> Also an actual note - these one shots are going to vary in length, tone, etc. This one is Waverly/Nicole-centric.

"That's the last box?" Nicole asked, shutting the door behind Waverly.

"Yeah," Waverly said.  "We're officially moved in."

"Well, sort of," Nicole said.  "I don't think we're moved in until we unpack all the boxes."

"So that's what you'd like to do right now?" Waverly asked, eyebrow cocked at her girlfriend.  "Unpack?"

"I mean, yeah," Nicole said, completely missing the look.  "We can't really do anything unless we unpack."

"You're sure about that?"

"Yeah," Nicole said, starting to open boxes.  "I mean, we could just order pizza or something for dinner but we still need plates."

"I wasn't talking about dinner."

Nicole looked up at her.

"Nicole, we bough that brand new bed..." Waverly said.

"Oh.  Oh!"  Nicole quickly abandoned the box she was unpacking.  "But, wait.  It's not put together or anything, it's just a mattress on the floor."

"Which still doesn't make it the worst place we've ever had sex," Waverly said.

Nicole couldn't help but nod in agreement.  She stepped toward Waverly.

"Well, if you insist..."

**-WE-**

Waverly woke up to a dark room.  She was familiar with the new apartment, but it was still disorienting to wake up there for the first time, in the dark, on a mattress on the floor surrounded by boxes.

Literally nothing was unpacked - no lamps, no clocks, nothing.  Waverly could see that it was dark outside through the curtain-less window but she had no idea what time it was.

She realized she was wearing all her clothes and reached into her pocket.  She checked her phone and it was well after eleven.

She sighed loudly, trying to shake off the last bit of tiredness.  She was sore from moving boxes all day.  She stretched a bit, and the sound and the movement woke up Nicole.

Nicole stirred a bit and looked over at Waverly.

"Good morning, baby," she grinned.

"It's almost midnight."

Nicole shrugged.  She realized she was wearing her clothes, too.

"We just fell asleep, didn't we?"

"Seems like," Waverly said.

"Wave, I love you, but I so needed that sleep."

Waverly laughed.  She wiggled over so that she had her head on Nicole's chest.  "Yeah, me too.  It's been a long day."

"I can't believe we have our own place," Nicole said.

"And that we signed a multi-year lease."

"Hey, it's too late to back out now, Earp."

"I've got no plans to ever back out, babe."

Even in the dark, Waverly could tell Nicole was grinning.  "Good."

"I mean, we're going to be spending years our lives here," Waverly continued.  "We can make plans and make changes and, I don't know.  We can build something here."

"Like our bed frame, hopefully, at some point."

Waverly elbowed her.  "I mean it.  I've been bouncing around places that were never really mine for the longest time.  I lived with Gus and Curtis, and then Champ, and then Wynonna-."

"Then with me."

"You're different," Waverly said.  "This feels like home."

Nicole again was smiling.  She kissed Waverly's head.  "Yeah, it does."


	4. But I Still Wake Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one is Waverly-centric, with Waverly/Nicole. The setting is open to interpretation but I personally see it as maybe late season 1.
> 
> Also, heads up on this one, it features a character being triggered. The trigger itself is an argument on television but yeah a character is triggered in this, and also there's a panic attack in here. Safe reading, everybody!

Waverly could hear something, and she knew it was real.  She knew she wasn't dreaming, but she wasn't yet awake enough to do anything about it.  She was in that weird, half-asleep, half-awake state when she could hear voices in the other room and it was all so familiar.  She'd experienced this before.  She had memories of this, of being asleep and trying so hard to stay asleep though she could hear yelling in another room.

Not just regular yelling, either.  It was screaming, it was anger and rage and competition and ruthlessness.

Waverly could hear it and she felt her pulse start to quicken.  She felt herself start to sweat and she felt herself toss and turn in the bed - in Nicole's bed.

She remembered where she was and bolted upright.

"Shit," she said to herself, finally waking up entirely.  She was breathing heavy and she ran a shaking hand through her hair.  "Shit."  She drew the word out.

She could still hear the arguing, but only faintly.  She noticed that Nicole wasn't in bed with her.

It was starting to make sense - Nicole wasn't in bed, so she was probably in the other room watching television, which is where the sound must've been coming from.

She knew it was pointless, but she got out of bed and looked through her bag.  She hadn't carried around her anti-anxiety medicine in a very long time - it'd been a while since she had a bad panic attack.  She had used a variety of methods to handle her anxiety and she thought she had a handle on it, but...

She put her bag back down on the floor, probably with a bit more force than necessary.

She headed to get back to bed and she heard Nicole move in the other room.

"Shit."

"Hey," Nicole said, opening the door a bit.  "You okay?"

"Yeah," Waverly said.  She nodded but wouldn't look Nicole in the eye.  "Yeah, I'm good."

"Did I wake you up?" Nicole asked.  "I'm sorry.  I couldn't sleep so I was watching a movie."

"No, it's fine," Waverly said.

"Do you want to watch with me?"

"No," Waverly said quickly.  "No, thanks."

Nicole walked towards her.  "Are you sure you're okay?"

Waverly nodded and gave Nicole a thumbs up.  "Yep."

Nicole nodded once.  "I'm going to make some tea.  I'll save you a cup, if you want."

"Thanks, babe."

**-WE-**

Waverly took a few moments to pull herself together before she went out to join Nicole.

"Hey," Nicole said warmly when Waverly stepped into the kitchen.

"Hey," Waverly said, voice low and shy.

"You're just in time," Nicole said, filling a mug and placing it in front of Waverly.

"Thanks."

"Yeah, no problem."

They sipped their tea quietly for a few moments.

"I have panic attacks sometimes," Waverly admitted.  "I haven't had one in a really long time and I'm usually good at catching and avoiding what sets them off, but tonight I didn't."

"Okay.  I'm sorry you had one tonight."

Waverly laughed a bit.  "Yeah, me too.  I don't know what happened, my parents argued a lot when I was a kid, at all hours of the day and it used to keep us all up and yeah, it can get hard to hear arguments now but usually I'm okay.  But tonight for whatever reason I just...couldn't handle it."

"That happens," Nicole said.  "It's okay."

Waverly exhaled deeply like she didn't believe Nicole.

"It really is," Nicole insisted.  "These things happen.  They happen to tons of people and there are tons of ways to handle them."

"I know," Waverly said.  "I used to take something but I haven't in a while.  I keep some for emergencies but it's at home."

"We can go get it, if you want."

"Nicole, it's two in the morning."

Nicole shrugged.  "We're up."

"No, it's fine," Waverly said.  "I'm doing better.  I'll be fine."

"Yeah, you will be."

Waverly gave her a look.  Nicole sometimes reached peak bumper sticker and Waverly didn't know what to say at those times.

"I know, I know," Nicole laughed.  "Is there anything you need right now?"

"No, thanks" Waverly said.

"Is there anything I can keep here?" Nicole asked.  "I mean, if you want to keep some of your medicine here..."

"You know, a lot of girlfriends just offer up an open drawer, or a spot on the sink for their toothbrush."

"Pills take up less space."

Again, Waverly gave her a look.

"Seriously," Nicole said.  "Anything you need, let me know, babe."

"Maybe no more midnight movies?" Waverly asked after a moment.  "At least, maybe no more of whatever that was."

"Yeah, it wasn't a very good movie anyway."

Waverly grinned.  "I lo-."  She cut herself off.  "I really appreciate that."

"I really appreciate you, too."


	5. I Still See Your Ghost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is set, in my mind, no more than a year after the end of season 1, but Waverly isn't possessed anymore and Dolls is back. It's Wynonna and Waverly centric, with Waverly/Nicole and Wynonna/Dolls mentions, and also mentions of Willa.
> 
> Enjoy, you guys!

"Hey," Nicole said, walking into Black Badge.  She put her jacket down and looked around.  "Is Wynonna in today?  I know Waverly's not."

"Yeah, Wynonna's not in today," Dolls said, barely looking up from his files.

"They're both out?  That's weird."

Dolls glanced up at her briefly.  "It makes sense."

"What does?  Them both being out today?"

"Yeah."

"Waverly's looking at research in the city, did Wynonna go with her?"

Dolls looked at her again.  "I don't know where she went."

"Okay."  Nicole looked at Dolls and could tell he was thinking something he wasn't saying.  "What?"

He looked up again and shrugged.  "It's Willa's birthday.  I don't know if they're together or not but they both asked for the day off, so I gave it to them."

Nicole looked taken aback.  She didn't know it was Willa's birthday, Waverly never mentioned it.

**-WE-**

Waverly was in Shorty's, cleaning down the bar when Gus walked in from the office.

"What are you doing here?" Gus asked.  "Your shift doesn't start for a few hours."

"I thought the bar could use a deep clean."

"On your one day you work here?"

"Come on, since you got the place back I've been picking up shifts now and then."

"Yeah, you're a sub."

Waverly looked up at her.  "You approved this shift today."

"I know I did."

"So, pass me that rag?"

Gus tossed the rag on the bar to Waverly across the bar.

"Is there a reason you're here this morning?"

"I can't stop into the bar I run?"

"I'm fine, Gus."

"I know."

"And you do this every year-."

"So why stop now?" Gus asked.  She sat at the bar and watched Waverly work.  "This year is different, Waverly."

"Yeah?  How so?" Waverly challenged.

"Wynonna's back," Gus said.  Waverly made a face.  "You know it's different this year, Waverly.  It's okay to feel different."

"How are you?" Waverly asked.  "You knew her better than I did."

"I'm okay," Gus said.  "It's hard, it's always hard."

Waverly shrugged.  "It's only her birthday.  It's not like she's here to celebrate."

"Waverly-."

"What do you even do for a thirtieth birthday?" Waverly asked.

"I don't know, particularly," Gus said.  "When I turned thirty, your Mama took me for a night out in the city."

"Are you going to check up on me on her birthday, too?"

Gus sighed as she stood.  "I have some paperwork to take care of, I'll be in the office."

Waverly nodded and got back to cleaning the bar.

**-WE-**

Wynonna opened the door to the homestead, which someone had been knocking on.

"Oh, hey."

"Hey," Nicole said.  "Is Waverly here?"

"Nope."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"How are you?" Nicole asked after a little awkward pause.

Wynonna inhaled deeply.  "I've been better."

Nicole nodded.  "Well, I'm on lunch so I can stick around if you want..."

"Did you bring lunch?"

"Uh," Nicole stammered.  "No, I didn't."

Wynonna cocked an eyebrow at her.

"But I can make something," Nicole said.  "Or order in, or go get something."

"Waverly says you're a good cook."

"I am."

"Do you really want to make me something?"

"Yeah," Nicole said, stepping inside.  "As long as you have stuff in your kitchen other than whiskey and peanut butter."

"I probably do."

**-WE-**

Waverly got to the homestead pretty early that night.  She was working an afternoon shift and since she spent the whole morning cleaning, she didn't really have anything to do after her shift to keep her at Shorty's.

So, she went to the homestead, a couple six packs in her arms.

"Hey," she said, finding Wynonna in the kitchen.

"Hey," Wynonna said.  She looked up from the plastic container of food she was eating from.  "Your girlfriend is a hell of a cook, I don't know why you haven't moved in with her yet."

"Nicole was here?"

"She stopped by at lunch," Wynonna said.

Waverly nodded and put the six packs on the table.  She opened one up and took out drinks for her and Wynonna.

"She was looking for you."

Waverly nodded.  "I told her I was in the city."

"Why?"

Waverly shook her head and shrugged.  "I don't know.  I didn't want to talk about it."

"You brought home beer."

"I did..."

"And drunk Waverly is chatty Waverly."

Waverly sat down next to Wynonna.  "I didn't want to talk about it with Nicole."

Wynonna gave her a look.

"I will at some point, alright?  Just not today."

Wynonna opened her drink and took a swig.

"I didn't want to see Dolls today," Wynonna admitted.  "I didn't want to see him, I didn't want to talk to him.  I mentioned last night after work that I wasn't coming in today and he didn't give me any shit, he just said 'okay'."

"He had to do it," Waverly said.  "And you did, too.  It had to be done."

"No, I know," Wynonna said.  She took another drink.  "It doesn't make it any easier."

"I miss her," Waverly said. "Which is weird because we didn't get along at all and ultimately she betrayed us and almost got us all killed but...I don't know..."

"Yeah, I miss her too," Wynonna said.  "I miss who she was."

"It's weird how we're the lucky ones in this," Waverly said after a moment.  "It's weird to think about how things could've been so much worse for us."

Wynonna nodded.  "Yeah," she said finally.

"Hence all the beer," Waverly said.  "I would've gone for the hard stuff but Gus said these weren't selling well so we could have them."

"Thank you Gus."  Wynonna downed her drink and opened another.

Waverly downed hers, too, and opened another.

"So, are we going to talk about it?"

"I thought we just did," Waverly said.

Wynonna gave her a look.  "That's fine, I'll wait for Chatty Waves."

"Thanks."

**-WE-**

 

Later that night, they were significantly drunker.

"Another episode?" Waverly slurred, waving the remote.

"I think Willa would've liked this show."

"Yeah?  She had likes and interests?"

"Yeah, she did," Wynonna said, sloppily elbowing Waverly.

"She probably would've liked being saved."

"What?"

"We could've saved her, maybe," Waverly said.  "Or I could've helped more, at least.  You saved her from the cult in the woods and the bear but I just stood around and was mean to her."

"You protected us."

"From our sister."

Waverly shrugged and pressed the button for the next episode, but it took her a few tries.

"Sometimes I think I should've left her in the woods."

Waverly looked over at Wynonna.

"Maybe not have left her there, but definitely not have taken her here.  It was selfish to move her here, maybe if we got her somewhere safe she'd be safe now."

"We're Earps, we're never safe."  Waverly spoke with a bitter laugh.

"I don't want to think about her anymore," Wynonna said, voice getting loud with her drunkenness.  "I feel guilty but it just hurts to think about her, more than usual."

"So don't," Waverly said.  "It happened, we can't change it now."

"We could've done something different.  I mean, look at everything that happened when she tried to leave-."

"Your boy is back," Waverly said.  "I'm back.  It's okay."

"Dolls is not my boy."

"Okay," Waverly said, reaching for another drink.

"He's not."

"Sure he's not."

"Waverly."

"Hey, you're the only one of us who ever picked a good guy."

Wynonna sat back.  "Yeah, at least I've got that going."

"Why do we live here?" Waverly asked.  "There's so many ghosts."

"What, literally?"

"No," Waverly said.  "But so much shit has happened here.  Daddy died here, Willa got taken here.  I got shot here.  This place has been attacked by zombies, Wynonna.  That's weird, even for us."

"Do you want to move?"

Waverly drank, thinking.  "I don't know.  No."

"So that's settled."

Waverly cleared her throat.  "Are we out of corn chips?"

"Nope, there should be more in the kitchen."

"We have work tomorrow.  We should go to bed."

"Or, we could eat more corn chips and watch another episode.  And finish these drinks while we're at it."

"And then what do we do tomorrow?"

"We can try to deal with this," Wynonna said.  "It'll take a while.  But we should start."

"Yeah," Waverly said.  She stood.  "I'm going to get the chips."

 


End file.
